Irish Agog That Joe Kernen, CNBC Host, Missed Their Exit From U.K.

The head of Ireland’s Industrial Development Agency, which is devoted to promoting foreign investment, became an unlikely viral video star after a bizarre appearance on CNBC on Monday.

Martin Shanahan, the chief executive of IDA Ireland, was praised by Irish viewers for his cool handling of a series of questions from a co-host of the CNBC program “Squawk Box,” Joe Kernen, who seemed stunned to learn that the Irish — who fought a bloody war of independence to separate from the United Kingdom nearly a century ago — did not still use the British pound as their currency.

Then, when the program’s third host, Becky Quick, asked if the weaker euro had helped Ireland’s tourist economy, Mr. Kernen revealed that he was confused about Ireland’s currency, and how its relationship to Britain was different from Scotland’s, in an exchange that seemed to owe something to the Marx Brothers or Abbott and Costello.

Quick: What has the weaker euro meant, in terms of tourism?

Shanahan: So, I think Ireland’s a very globalized economy, so we look to what is happening here as much as we do to what is happening in Europe and we look to what is happening in …

Kernen: You have pounds anyway, don’t you still?

Shanahan: We have euros.

Kernen: You have euros in Ireland?

Shanahan: We have euros, yes, which has aided …

Kernen: Why do you have euros in Ireland?

Shanahan: strong recovery …

Kernen: Why do use euros in Ireland?

Shanahan: Why wouldn’t we have euros in Ireland?

Quick: It is part of the E.U.

Kernen: Huh?

Quick: Part of the E.U.

Kernen: I’d use the pound.

Shanahan: No, we’ve had the euro for some time and we’re very happy with it.

Kernen: What about Scotland? I was using Scottish, uh. …

Shanahan: Scottish pounds, yeah.

Kernen: Scottish pounds.

Shanahan: They use sterling.

Kernen: They use sterling?

Shanahan: They use sterling. But we use euro.

Kernen: What? Why would you do that?

Shanahan: Why wouldn’t we do that?

Kernen: Why didn’t Scotland? No wonder they want to break away.

Shanahan: They’re part of the U.K., we’re not.

Kernen: Aren’t you right next to, uh. …

Shanahan: We’re very close but entirely separate, as you know well.

Kernen: It is sort of the same — the same island, isn’t it?

Shanahan: And in the North of Ireland they have sterling, but ——

Kernen: They do?

Shanahan: We use euro, yes.

Kernen: It’s just too confusing. … Northern Ireland’s the pound?

Shanahan: Northern Ireland’s the pound, yes.

Kernen: Oh my God, you guys got to get it together over there.

Later in the interview, Mr. Kernen struggled to reconcile this new information with what he knew of Northern Ireland’s troubled relationship to the rest of Britain and finally suggested, “Northern Ireland should be the one not using the pound.”

To which a baffled Mr. Shanahan replied, “I’m not sure I follow your logic.”

A spokesman for CNBC declined to comment on the reaction to the exchange, and the channel’s website only includes video of the first part of the interview, before it went off the rails.

As the clip quickly racked up more than 200,000 views, the interview drew praise for Mr. Shanahan and criticism of Mr. Kernen in high volume in the Irish press and on social networks.

While the financial network broadcasts a different version of “Squawk Box” in Europe, with English and Australian hosts, in addition to the American show, regular viewers of CNBC Europe have noted some confusion there too when it comes to Ireland.

As the Financial Times journalist John Aglionby noticed last year, the map used each day on CNBC’s “European Closing Bell,” looking at stock markets across the continent, appears to show no political division between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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A screenshot from a recent broadcast of CNBC's "European Closing Bell."

Apparently embracing the maxim that there is no such thing as bad publicity, Kevin Sammon, a press officer for the Irish agency, drew attention to the clip on Twitter and even engaged in some banter about it with Mr. Kernen.